An upcoming zoning exception could turn the few acres left between the grid of Las Vegas and Red Rocks into a housing development, forever changing the views from your favorite multi-pitch Red Rock climbs. In 2002, the Access Fund helped defeat a proposal to build 8,400 homesincluding a school, golf course and businesseson Blue Diamond Hill across the road from the world class climbing at Red Rocks. Now the notorious Rhodes Development (responsible for the ugly tract homes creeping towards Red Rocks) is close to receiving county approval that could lead to a 1,700-acre McMansion project. This is the kind of housing development eyesore that Blue Diamond residents and Red Rocks visitors have opposed for years.

On April 21, Clark County will vote on an exception to a local ordinance that prevents developments of more than two homes per acre on the land within the Red Rock Overlay District. If this zoning exception is granted, the development on Blue Diamond Hill could go forward, and the few acres left between the grid of Las Vegas and Red Rocks will be filled with million-dollar homes.

Some critics think that this effort to ease zoning restrictions is just a ploy to raise property values and thus enable the Rhodes Development to milk taxpayers for more money if the federal government is forced to buy the property to protect scenic values at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The Access Fund is working with local Las Vegas climbers and conservation groups to again defeat this proposal. To get more information, contact the Las Vegas Climbers Liaison Council and Save Red Rock Canyon.

Stay tuned after the April 21 Clark County Commission vote for ways you can help protect the unparalleled climbing experience at Red Rocks.

Red Rocks has seen a rapid decline ever since they installed the tollbooths and brought people out there by the bus load.Looking at Red rocks, It is hard to understand what exactly BLM means when they say Conservation area? This would truly be the nail in Red Rocks coffin. Do everything you can to help. *note this is under the Colorado section.

The Vegas area has a massive surplus of houses....specifically shitty tract houses. If they didn't build a single house for a year, the inventory might return to normal levels. Totally unnecessary to build any more houses there, especially near red rocks. I'm disgusted just thinking about it.

I just remember when I went to RR for my first time two years ago and on the way out the road for Vegas proper I thought to myself A) Wow there are a lot of shitty track houses out here and B) This is absolutely absurd that somecorporation would build so much in an area of the country that has absolutely none of its own resources. By the time I finally left the one-development-ten-thousand-of-the-same-house area I was refreshed that at least RR was not spatially beholden to that absolute monstrosity.

I wish the local climbing groups and national organizations the best in this battle and encourage the MP community to keep the rest of us from around the world posted on petitions and submissions that we might send to halt the construction of more in a time in our country when house everywhere sit empty because no one is buying and everyone is getting evicted. Oh how it must have felt in Rome around 330 CE or so . . .

Don't be lazy and click over to some other mindless thread of me baiting sport climbers or other "entertainment." Click on the link and help get this thing stopped. John is right in thinking that the Blue Diamond residents that I've talked to view this as a Rhodes scam to drive up the land value and force the BLM (our tax dollars) to eat it when they buy it back at an inflated value to "SAVE THE WILDERNESS" (there is a gypsum mine up there-ever heard/felt a huge boom while climbing in Velvet? Mystery solved..). The gypsum facility is arguably an eyesore, but McMansions galore would just sicken me and a lot of others. Sign the petition. Sign the petition. Ya clicked on the damn link so you know you at least vaguely give a shit-NOW SIGN THE PETITION!